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Mary Poppins (film)
Mary Poppins is a 1964 American musical hybrid film presented and produced by Walt Disney Productions and distributed by Buena Vista Pictures Distribution, based on the Mary Poppins series of children's books written by Pamela L. Travers. Songs in the film are by Richard M. Sherman and Robert B. Sherman. It is rated G by the MPAA. The film was released to great critical praise. Mary Poppins was famously nominated for thirteen Academy Awards, making Mary Poppins as the Oscar most-nominated Disney-film. Although the film was favored highly to won the Best Picture award in 1965, it lost the award to My Fair Lady, ''another musical film. Nevertheless, the film still managed to won five awards out of thirteen, most notably Best Actress for Julie Andrews for her portrayal as Mary Poppins. In 2006 this film ranked #6 on the American Film Institute's list of best musicals. It also has one of the larger parts of The Great Movie Ride. Having both a poster in the "lobby" of the "theater" (The place where riders line up) And the passengers go through a scene with an animatronic Mary Poppins. It is largely considered as the Greatest Disney Live Action movie. Plot The film opens with a shot of Mary Poppins touching up her makeup as she perches on a cloud high above 1910 London. The action then descends to earth where Bert, a cockney jack-of-all-trades, introduces the audience to the Bankses, a well-to-do but troubled family headed by the rather cold and aloof Mr. Banks and the loving but highly distracted Mrs. Banks. The Banks' latest nanny has just quit out of exasperation at the indiscipline of the Banks children, Jane and Michael, a fact that Mrs. Banks only belatedly becomes aware of, due to her ongoing preoccupation with suffragette rallies. Upon learning of the situation, Mr. Banks decides to take a personal hand in the hiring of a replacement and insists on a stern authoritarian type to control his children. However, Jane and Michael take upon themselves to draft an advertisement for a fun person who would not be a tyrant. Although Mr. Banks rejects their proposal, tears up their ad and throws it in the fireplace, the note scraps magically fly up the chimney for Mary Poppins to piece together and read. The next day there is a long queue of old (and thoroughly disagreeable, in the children's opinion) nanny candidates waiting at the Banks' door. However, a strong gust of wind literally blows the queue away while Mary Poppins flies down with her umbrella to apply. The interview with Mr. Banks goes quickly, when he is stunned to see this calmly defiant new nanny has responded to the children's ad (rather than his own) despite the fact he destroyed it. As he tries to fathom this mystery, Mary Poppins hires herself and begins work. The children face surprises of their own as they discover that Mary's method of arrival is only the beginning of her magical talents. With songs and magic, numerous wondrously impossible things happen starting with Mary Poppins's bottomless carpetbag, and her making the children's nursery clean itself to the tune of "A Spoonful of Sugar." The magic continues with a wondrous outing that begins by literally jumping into a chalk pavement drawing with Bert, and later having tea while suspended in midair with Mary's joking "Uncle Albert," who floats uncontrollably whenever he laughs. Mr. Banks grows increasingly uncomfortable with his children's stories of their adventures and how they are enchanted by the new nanny. However, Mary effortlessly inverts his attempted dismissal of her services into a plan to take his children with him to the bank where he is employed. Unfortunately, the occasion takes a disastrous turn when Mr. Dawes, Mr. Banks' extremely elderly employer, personally tries to persuade Michael to invest his money, which Michael intended for a local birdwoman, to the point of stealing it out of the boy's hand. When Michael loudly protests, the other customers suddenly panic and start a bank run that forces the bank to suspend business. In the resulting chaos, the children flee in fear, wander into the slums of the East End of London and become lost. Fortunately, they literally run into Bert, currently employed as a chimney sweep. He takes them safely home while explaining that the incident at the bank does not mean their father hates them, but rather is a sign of the fact that he has preoccupying problems of his own. Upon arrival at the Banks' home, a departing Mrs. Banks asks Bert to watch the children until she gets home as it's Mary's day off, where he ends up sweeping the chimney while the children watch. Mary arrives back to caution the children about the hazards of that activity. However, the children are sucked up the chimney to the roof. Bert and Mary follow to retrieve them. Taking advantage of the situation, Mary and Bert lead a tour of the rooftops of London that concludes with a joyfully energetic dance with Bert's chimney-sweep colleagues as they demonstrate their acrobatic skill to the music of "Step In Time." A volley of fireworks from the Banks' eccentric neighbor, Admiral Boom, sends the group back down the chimney into the Banks home. Mr. Banks arrives home, forcing Mary to conclude the festivities. Banks then receives a phone call from work ordering him to return immediately for disciplinary action. As Mr. Banks gathers his strength to face his superiors, Bert points out that while Mr. Banks does need to make a living, his offspring's childhood will come and go in a blink of an eye, and as a father he needs to be there for them while he can. After Bert leaves, a despondent Michael comes, and gives Mr. Banks the money he refused to give Mr. Dawes earlier that day, in hopes that it will make everything all right. A somber and thoughtful Mr. Banks proceeds to the bank where he is fired in the most humiliating way possible for causing the first run on the bank since 1773. However, after being left at a loss for words when ordered to give a statement about his dismissal, Mr. Banks realizes the true priorities of life and gleefully uses Mary's all purpose word "Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious!" to tweak Mr. Dawes. He then tells Dawes one of Uncle Albert's jokes, and raucously departs to the amazement of his ex-colleagues. Dawes mulls over the joke, finally "gets it" and floats up into the air, laughing... The next morning, the winds have changed and to the children's sorrow, Mary must depart. However, Mr. Banks, now loving and joyful, reappears after a long night's disappearance with a mended kite for the children and an urge to play with his family. Mrs. Banks also realizes that she's been neglectful of her children, and supplies a tail for the kite, using one of her suffragette ribbons. They all leave the house without a backward glance as Mary Poppins watches from a window. In the park with other kite-flyers, Mr. Banks meets Mr. Dawes Jr. who says that his father literally died laughing at the joke. Instead of mournful, the son is delighted that his father died happy, and rehires Mr. Banks to fill the sudden opening. With her work done, Mary Poppins takes to the air, returning to the clouds with a farewell from Bert. Production The first book in Mary Poppins book series was the main basis for the movie. According to the 40th Anniversary DVD release of the film in 2004, Walt Disney's daughters fell in love with the ''Mary Poppins books, and made him promise to make a film based on them. Disney first attempted to purchase the film rights to Mary Poppins from P. L. Travers as early as 1938 but was rebuffed because Travers did not believe a film version of her books would do justice to her creation. In addition, Disney was known at the time primarily as a producer of cartoons and had yet to produce any major live-action work. For more than 20 years, Disney periodically made efforts to convince Travers to allow him to make a Poppins film. He finally succeeded in 1961, although Travers demanded and got script approval rights. Pre-production and composing the songs took about two years. Travers was an adviser to the production. However, she disapproved of the dilution of the harsher aspects of Mary Poppins' character, felt ambivalent about the music, and so hated the use of animation that she ruled out any further adaptations of the later Mary Poppins novels. She objected to a number of elements that actually made it into the film. Rather than original songs, she wanted the soundtrack to feature known standards of the Edwardian period in which the story is set. She also objected to the animated sequence. Disney overruled her, citing contract stipulations that he had final say on the finished print. Julie Andrews, who was making her movie acting debut after a successful stage career, got the prime role of Mary Poppins soon after she was passed over by Jack Warner and replaced with Audrey Hepburn for the role of Eliza Doolittle in his screen version of My Fair Lady, even though Andrews had originated the role on Broadway. When Walt Disney first approached Andrews about taking on the role, Andrews was three months pregnant and therefore was not sure she should take the role. Disney assured her that the crew would be fine with waiting to begin filming until after she had given birth so that she could play the part. Julie Andrews also provided the voice in two other sections of the film: during "A Spoonful of Sugar," she provided the whistling harmony for the robin, and she was also one of the Pearly singers during "Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious." David Tomlinson, besides playing Mr. Banks, provided the voice of Mary's talking umbrella and numerous other voice-over parts (including that of Admiral Boom's first mate). During the Jolly Holiday sequence, the three singing Cockney geese were all voiced by Marni Nixon, a regular aural substitute for actresses with substandard singing voices. Nixon would later provide the singing voice for Audrey Hepburn in My Fair Lady and play one of Julie Andrews' fellow nuns in The Sound of Music. Andrews later beat Hepburn for the Best Actress Award at the Golden Globes for their respective roles. Andrews would also win the Academy Award for Best Actress for her role. Hepburn did not receive a nomination. Richard Sherman, one of the songwriters, also voiced a penguin as well as one of the Pearlies. The Sherman Brothers composed the music score and were also involved in the film's development, suggesting the setting be changed from the 1930s to the Edwardian era. Disney cast Dick Van Dyke in the key supporting role of Bert after seeing his work on The Dick Van Dyke Show. Van Dyke also played the senior Mr. Dawes in the film. Although he is fondly remembered for this film, Van Dyke's attempt at a cockney accent is regarded as one of the worst film accents in history, cited as an example by actors since as something that they wish to avoid. In a 2003 poll by Empire magazine of the worst film accents of all time he came second. Van Dyke claims that his accent coach was Irish, who "didn't do an accent any better than I did". The film changed the book story line in a number of places. For example, Mary, when approaching the house, controlled the wind rather than the other way around. As another example, the father, rather than the mother, interviewed Mary for the nanny position. Much of the Travers-Disney correspondence is part of the Travers collection of papers in the Mitchell Library of New South Wales, Australia. The relationship between Travers and Disney is detailed in Mary Poppins She Wrote, a biography of Travers, by Valerie Lawson. The biography is the basis for two documentaries on Travers, The Real Mary Poppins and Lisa Matthews' The Shadow of Mary Poppins. Their relationship during the development of the film was also dramatized in the 2013 film, Saving Mr. Banks. A number of other changes were necessary to condense the story into feature length. In the movie, there are only two Banks children, Jane and Michael. The satirical and mysterious aspects of the original book gave way to a cheerful and "Disney-fied" tone. Mary Poppins' character as portrayed by Andrews in the film is somewhat less vain and more sympathetic towards the children compared to the rather cold and intimidating nanny of the original book. Bert, as played by Van Dyke, was a composite of several characters from Travers' stories. Travers demanded that any suggestions of romance between Mary and Bert be eliminated, so lyrics were written for "Jolly Holiday" that clearly indicated that their friendship was purely platonic. (Some subtle hints of romance, however, did remain in the finished film.) Travers wasn't extended an invitation to the film's premiere, but managed to obtain one from a Disney executive. It was at the after-party that Richard Sherman recalled her walking up to Disney and loudly announcing that the animated sequence had to go. Disney responded, "Pamela, the ship has sailed," and walked away. While Travers publicly praised the Mary Poppins film following its premiere, her public position on the film shifted after a proposed sequel didn't materialize in the 1960s. Never at ease with the handling of her property by Disney or the way she felt she had been treated, Travers would never again agree to another Poppins/Disney adaptation. So fervent was Travers' dislike of the Disney adaptation and of the way she felt she had been treated during the production, that when producer Cameron Mackintosh approached her about the stage musical in the 1990s, she acquiesced on the condition that only English-born writers and no one from the film production were to be directly involved with creating the stage musical. Release Mary Poppins was the most profitable film of 1965, earning a net profit of $28.5 million. The Sound of Music was #2 with $20 million; Goldfinger was #3 at $19.7 million; and My Fair Lady was #4 at $19 million. The film was re-released theatrically in 1973 and earned an estimated $9 million in North American rentals. Walt Disney would soon take his huge profits from the film and purchase 27,500 acres in central Florida and finance the construction of Walt Disney World. Disney died in 1966, just prior to the beginning of the construction phase. Home media Mary Poppins was first released in the early 1980s on VHS, Beta, CED and laserdisc. From 1994 to 1999, it was re-released three times as part of the Walt Disney Masterpiece Collection. In 1998, this film became Disney's first DVD. In 2000, it was released on VHS and DVD as part of the Gold Classic Collection. In 2004, it had a 2-Disc DVD release in a Digitally Restored 40th Anniversary Edition as well as its final issue in the VHS Format. The film's audio track featured an "Enhanced Home Theater Mix" consisting of replaced sound effects (to make the soundtrack more "modern") and improved fidelity and mixing and some enhanced music (this version was also shown on 2006-2012 ABC Family airings of the movie.) On January 27, 2009, the film was released on DVD again as a 45th anniversary edition, with more language tracks and special features (though the film's "Enhanced Home Theater Mix" wasn't included.) Walt Disney Studios Home Entertainment released the film on Blu-ray as the 50th Anniversary Edition on December 10, 2013. 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